The VPN Galerie enables customers tp access Orange and partners’ infrastructure and software as a service, while benefitting from the advantages of the Orange Business Services cloud-ready network. These include end-to-end management and support, reliability, performance and security. Customers can maintain their existing user access methods and corporate security policies for all Business VPN Galerie services.

“Business VPN Galerie was the world’s first cloud-ready network offer on the market. By connecting Business VPN Galerie with Salesforce, we are strongly enriching the ecosystem of applications available through Business VPN Galerie,” says Didier Duriez, senior vice president Global Solutions and Services, Orange Business Services.

Orange Silicon Valley announced the opening of its GigaStudio, a lab dedicated to helping start-ups test ultra-high bandwidth use cases in a secure 1 Gbps test bed environment. The company will be providing free access to GigaStudio for interested companies.

Orange Silicon Valley is seeking the early adopters and evangelists in the ultrafast Internet ecosystem. The GigaStudio will hold events to champion gigabit use cases and applications.

Orange Silicon Valley said gigabit speed fundamentally reshapes the consumer experience. "Gigabit thinking" refers to how gigabit will fundamentally reshape the consumer experience. While common wisdom equates gigabit Internet with more and higher resolution video consumption, the technology demands a reset of product design thinking. By definition, gigabit Internet means that companies are no longer constrained by bandwidth limitations and the requirement to optimize for speed. Additional fiber benefits include low latency for gaming applications, symmetrical connections for faster uploads/cloud syncing, and effectively unlimited multi-tasking for consumer households.

In the French market, Orange Fiber has 400,000 customers and 3 million French households are eligible for fiber today.

Gabriel Sidhom, VP of Technology Strategy & Development at Orange SV, commented: "Orange is fully committed to rolling out very high broadband networks throughout Europe: Spain, Poland, and especially France with the target of covering 60% of the population by 2020. We are opening the Orange GigaStudio doors for high bandwidth startups to access our customer base. I encourage you to bring your ideas, come connect to our dedicated gigabit connection, and shape the Internet of tomorrow with us."

Orange Silicon Valley will hold the first Orange GigaStudio information session on July 31st.

Since its acquisition of EdgeCast Networks at the beginning of this year, Verizon Digital Media Services has added more than 20 new points of presence (POPs) to its global content delivery network. New POPs include Warsaw, Stockholm, Milan, Vienna, Melbourne, Helsinki, Kaohsiung, Batam, Jakarta and Sao Paulo. The company also expanded its presence with additional POPs in many cities already served, including London, Madrid, Paris and Amsterdam. These additions offer customers even greater connectivity and performance within these markets.

Verizon said each new POP is built securely on the latest generation of delivery servers, with pre-built dedicated space for rapid expansion. The POPs have multiple diverse connections into last-mile networks and are provisioned to support the full suite of Verizon EdgeCast services.

“The majority of our customers offer their services to a global audience. Our continued worldwide expansion means content is as close as possible to the end-user’s digital doorstep,” said James Segil, chief marketing officer, Verizon Digital Media Services. “Continuing to add points of presence to our network helps our customers deliver even their largest files quickly and efficiently no matter whether the viewer is watching video, shopping, gaming or sharing content.”

One example of the global CDN expansion occurred in a massive and diverse carrier-neutral Brazil colocation site in Sao Paulo. Serving as one of the most important Internet exchanges in the region, this Verizon-owned data center is in Sao Paulo’s high-tech corridor and has redundancy links across both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

In December 2013, Verizon agreed to acquire EdgeCast, a content delivery network company based in Santa Monica, California. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal closed in January 2014.

Edgecast operates a series of CDN "SuperPOPS" in over 30 locations around the world. Unlike earlier CDNs, which placed a small number of servers in thousands of locations, Edgecast focused on a smaller number of strategic global locations near primary Internet Exchange Points. These caching servers are located in data centers where major backbone providers operates Internet exchanges.

EdgeCast claims more than 6,000 accounts, including some of the world’s leading Web brands for global media delivery and acceleration services.

Verizon Digital Media Services plans to integrate EdgeCast capabilities in its own network.

Zain completed the first Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call over its commercial LTE network in Kuwait. NSN is the VoLTE solution provider. Nokia Networks’ VoLTE solution consisted of its IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), Subscriber Data Management, and Open TAS (Telecommunications Application Server). Open TAS provides supplementary services that are applicable for voice, messaging, and video sessions for subscribers in LTE and other broadband networks.

“Zain further affirms its leadership position by introducing the latest technologies to constantly improve its customers’ experience,” said Omar Saud Al Omar, Chief Executive Officer of Zain Kuwait. “Today’s VoLTE success with Nokia Networks’ solution is an important milestone in our planning for the future, which will translate into providing enhanced mobile broadband services to our customers across Kuwait, offering them an opportunity to enjoy unparalleled quality.”

Nokia Networks signed a large contract with Zain KSA to modernize and expand the operator’s network in Saudi Arabia.

Under a program called RELOAD, Nokia Networks will deploy its compact Single RAN Advanced to refarm part of Zain KSA’s 2100 MHz 2G and 3G frequencies for LTE. Carrier aggregation of FDD-LTE spectrum will be used for LTE-Advances services. Nokia's Flexi Zone small cells will be installed for enhanced coverage, and Zain will also deploy Nokia's NetAct for monitoring, managing and optimizing its 2G, 3G and 4G networks.

Nokia Networks said this upgrade will also feature its its "Liquid" distributed cloud solution, which is enabled by its Radio Applications Cloud Server (RACS). This will provide Zain KSA with enhanced 4G throughput and backhauling savings, and will put it into a position to deliver customized applications such as augmented reality and location-based services due to its exposure to real-time network data.

Hassan Kabbani, CEO of Zain KSA, said: “We want to reload our network infrastructure with the very latest of technologies in order to address the high demand for more interesting services. We are confident that Nokia’s unique technologies such as Liquid Applications will greatly improve customer experience and position Zain KSA as a technology leader in the Saudi market.”

Igor Leprince, Senior Vice President & Head of MEA, Nokia Networks, said: “This huge project exemplifies the strong partnership we have developed over the years and will result in Zain KSA’s network being one of the best in the region.”

Sanmina is a leading provider of integrated manufacturing solutions making some of the world's most complex and innovative optical, electronic and mechanical products.

The Pluribus Freedom F-Series includes its Netvisor software platform, a network hypervisor that delivers control and visibility by automating the network just like a server, enabling a rich set of in-network fabric, analytics and virtualization services. The Freedom product line bridges the DevOps-NetOps gap by extending virtualization to the network and has been deployed in more than 20 countries in some of the most demanding content delivery, financial trading and enterprise messaging networks.

"Sanmina provided the critical expertise we needed in high-speed printed circuit board (PCB) technology and system design that helped make the Freedom F-Series a reality," said Kumar Srikantan, president and chief executive officer of Pluribus Networks. "Their ability to design and prototype the product here in Silicon Valley meant we could work closely with them every step of the way. Pluribus is now leveraging Sanmina's global footprint to transfer production to a lower-cost region. By being local and global, Sanmina allowed us to bring our products to market quickly and cost-effectively."